An Investigation on Mineral Dissolution and Precipitation in Cement-Stabilized Soils: Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Thermodynamic modeling helps to reveal insights into the basic chemical kinetics of dissolution and precipitation in cementitious materials, but relevant applications to cement-stabilized soils have seldom been reported. Based on the thermodynamic database of Cemdata18 and the pore solution composition of cement-stabilized soils, this study formulated a specialized thermodynamic model, using essential thermodynamic constants for soil minerals that were calculated to ensure the model’s accuracy. Two commercial admixtures of alkaline activator and polynaphthalene sulfonate were selected for the different modification mechanisms and plain and modified cement-stabilized soils were prepared. Compressive strength was tested to determine the specimens for pore solution analysis and the influences of the admixture type and dose on dissolution and precipitation were investigated by modeling the ionic activity products and saturation indexes. An X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed to verify and complement the thermodynamic results. The major research findings were that (1) thermodynamic modeling can be reliably applied to cement-stabilized soils by providing the essential thermodynamic data and an appropriate product model, (2) the pozzolanic reaction is accelerated by increasing the OH− concentration in the pore solution, while the cement hydration is highly dependent on the dissolution of Ca(OH)2 and the relevant complexes and (3) the dissolution equilibrium of Ca(OH)2 is directly affected by the alkaline activator dissolution and is indirectly affected by the polynaphthalene sulfonate adsorption of the reactants.